Topic: RAWK Web Development Circle

[aaronaldo]

Hi Guys,

Quick question. I'm building a website through wordpress for a friend (I've not used wordpress so most of it is new to me). The domain has been bought through 123 reg. How would i go about setting up an email address for the website? so id like info@mywebsite.co.uk etc

If anyone can recommend any methods or guides that would be great. Apologies if this is the wrong topic

thank you!!

[Zlen]

A question for developers in here.

What would you advise a designer on how to deliver files?
Do you prefer Sketch files, is there anything you really hate when working with designers?

[Claire.]

Hi Guys,

Quick question. I'm building a website through wordpress for a friend (I've not used wordpress so most of it is new to me). The domain has been bought through 123 reg. How would i go about setting up an email address for the website? so id like info@mywebsite.co.uk etc

If anyone can recommend any methods or guides that would be great. Apologies if this is the wrong topic

thank you!!

Is it hosted by Wordpress.org or do you have a hosting package? If it's on Wordpress then you'll likely need to buy an email package from 123 reg.

[johnybarnes]

Any advice for someone pondering a career change? I'm not in the I.T sector at all.

I've always been around computers and I have dabbled with HTML/CSS...I'm dedicated to put in the hours...I've seen coding bootcamps that have good reviews but they do cost around £8,000. I'm 27 and think I need to get a grip...my current job does not have many prospects.

[Claire.]

Any advice for someone pondering a career change? I'm not in the I.T sector at all.

I've always been around computers and I have dabbled with HTML/CSS...I'm dedicated to put in the hours...I've seen coding bootcamps that have good reviews but they do cost around £8,000. I'm 27 and think I need to get a grip...my current job does not have many prospects.

When I started out you didn't need any qualifications or anything, you could (mostly) blag it and then once you were in you could keep learning and get on fine, it's different now and I feel sorry for people starting out cos there's so much to learn and know and the landscape, especially in client side, can switch in a matter of days. That said, if you're interested in it, give it a good go cos it's a great career path and it can take you anywhere in the world you want to go.

With that said... if you want to do client side (html/css/js) then I wouldn't recommend going on a course unless it's fairly long term - I don't know what the bootcamp thing is but something like Udacity do courses, £150/mo I think it is but it'll last like, I don't actually know, but they're not fast. Reason I say that is, you can learn the basics for free from say codecademy but then it's taking that forward and continuous learning that's needed for a good client side dev.

[johnybarnes]

When I started out you didn't need any qualifications or anything, you could (mostly) blag it and then once you were in you could keep learning and get on fine, it's different now and I feel sorry for people starting out cos there's so much to learn and know and the landscape, especially in client side, can switch in a matter of days. That said, if you're interested in it, give it a good go cos it's a great career path and it can take you anywhere in the world you want to go.

With that said... if you want to do client side (html/css/js) then I wouldn't recommend going on a course unless it's fairly long term - I don't know what the bootcamp thing is but something like Udacity do courses, £150/mo I think it is but it'll last like, I don't actually know, but they're not fast. Reason I say that is, you can learn the basics for free from say codecademy but then it's taking that forward and continuous learning that's needed for a good client side dev.

Thanks for the info Claire.

I'm using the free resources like codeacademy in my free time and also sneaking it in at work.

Articles I've read for people doing a drastic career swap have all mentioned bootcamps, it is essentially 12 weeks of 8-10 hours coding. http://www.makersacademy.com/curriculum/ is one I saw that had positive reviews...people walking into junior roles at the end.

[aaronaldo]

Is it hosted by Wordpress.org or do you have a hosting package? If it's on Wordpress then you'll likely need to buy an email package from 123 reg.

Thanks for your reply. Its hosted on a private server, which i don't have access too.

Would it be possible to do it through g-suite and get the domain verified through there?

[PaulF]

Thanks for the info Claire.

I'm using the free resources like codeacademy in my free time and also sneaking it in at work.

Articles I've read for people doing a drastic career swap have all mentioned bootcamps, it is essentially 12 weeks of 8-10 hours coding. http://www.makersacademy.com/curriculum/ is one I saw that had positive reviews...people walking into junior roles at the end.

I'd be wary of ploughing too much money in upfront. Claire is far more 'front end' than me, but I think you REALLY need a portfolio. From a programmer perspective, you really need an eye for the design side too.   I know a lot of it is ,clinical and teachable, but I really think you need a but of flair for front end stuff.  If, like me, you can't draw a stick man, then consider programming or testing or even eww infrastructure. All very viable career paths.  What's your current role, are you using something specialist you could become an expert \ consultant in?

[johnybarnes]

I'd be wary of ploughing too much money in upfront. Claire is far more 'front end' than me, but I think you REALLY need a portfolio. From a programmer perspective, you really need an eye for the design side too.   I know a lot of it is ,clinical and teachable, but I really think you need a but of flair for front end stuff.  If, like me, you can't draw a stick man, then consider programming or testing or even eww infrastructure. All very viable career paths.  What's your current role, are you using something specialist you could become an expert \ consultant in?

Yeah I want to get a body of work together - guess it would be fairly rudimental stuff at this stage. I'm fairly crap at design and drawing - I've never really given photoshop a real bash, I have it installed.

I'm currently a mortgage underwriter - the only obvious transferrable skill I can think of is attention to detail.

My thoughts based on some research is to get to grips with HTML/CSS and then Javascript - do you think this is wise? I've read its more beneficial to become proficient in a few areas rather than jack of all trades.

Cheers for your advice.

[Claire.]

Yeah I want to get a body of work together - guess it would be fairly rudimental stuff at this stage. I'm fairly crap at design and drawing - I've never really given photoshop a real bash, I have it installed.

I'm currently a mortgage underwriter - the only obvious transferrable skill I can think of is attention to detail.

My thoughts based on some research is to get to grips with HTML/CSS and then Javascript - do you think this is wise? I've read its more beneficial to become proficient in a few areas rather than jack of all trades.

Cheers for your advice.

Body of work is always a good idea, and it's very true that many front end devs come from design backgrounds. It's not essential to the job or anything, you can learn about a lot of the concepts but 99% of the time the designer will work alongside you and pick up on every misplaced pixel and drive you to distraction.

Agree with Paul on the course, for £8k I'd want it pumped into my brain like the matrix. If you're interested in Ruby, a zillion resources online and there's a really good rails tutorial - https://www.railstutorial.org/book/beginning

Git - can learn it all online - https://git-scm.com/

Masses of learning resources for javascript as well.

CSS isn't hard, but it's one of those things that some people can do really, really well and everyone else is pure average at. CSS is my specialism so I may come across twatty, but most people are shite at it, trust me.

First off - I would concentrate on writing excellent markup, learning what the browser does with that markup without any CSS. Make sure it reads well and as expected and then move onto the CSS. Semantics and good structure always pay off.

Honestly, you might feel you need structure and someone to push you along and the amount of stuff to learn is intimidating, but everywhere I've worked and people we've interviewed the ones who are self starters and continuously learn are the better devs.

[johnybarnes]

Body of work is always a good idea, and it's very true that many front end devs come from design backgrounds. It's not essential to the job or anything, you can learn about a lot of the concepts but 99% of the time the designer will work alongside you and pick up on every misplaced pixel and drive you to distraction.

Agree with Paul on the course, for £8k I'd want it pumped into my brain like the matrix. If you're interested in Ruby, a zillion resources online and there's a really good rails tutorial - https://www.railstutorial.org/book/beginning

Git - can learn it all online - https://git-scm.com/

Masses of learning resources for javascript as well.

CSS isn't hard, but it's one of those things that some people can do really, really well and everyone else is pure average at. CSS is my specialism so I may come across twatty, but most people are shite at it, trust me.

First off - I would concentrate on writing excellent markup, learning what the browser does with that markup without any CSS. Make sure it reads well and as expected and then move onto the CSS. Semantics and good structure always pay off.

Honestly, you might feel you need structure and someone to push you along and the amount of stuff to learn is intimidating, but everywhere I've worked and people we've interviewed the ones who are self starters and continuously learn are the better devs.

Thanks Claire.

Yeah the £8k is quite expensive but I thought if it gives me a jump start into a new career...in the grand scheme of things its an acceptable hit. Your point regarding self starters being better devs is hopeful though! I agree the volume of stuff out there is daunting...throw in some self doubt and my head is spinning!

I will take your advice on writing excellent markup - if I don't spend 8K on that bootcamp I'm pondering whether I should quit my job and commit to learning as I'm currently fitting in coding here and there - it isn't consitent. I don't have many bills and I'm living at home rent free at the moment - I could live off my savings for at least 6 months.

Appreciate your thoughts.

[PaulF]

Thanks Claire.

Yeah the £8k is quite expensive but I thought if it gives me a jump start into a new career...in the grand scheme of things its an acceptable hit. Your point regarding self starters being better devs is hopeful though! I agree the volume of stuff out there is daunting...throw in some self doubt and my head is spinning!

I will take your advice on writing excellent markup - if I don't spend 8K on that bootcamp I'm pondering whether I should quit my job and commit to learning as I'm currently fitting in coding here and there - it isn't consitent. I don't have many bills and I'm living at home rent free at the moment - I could live off my savings for at least 6 months.

Appreciate your thoughts.

I admire your balls!(*)

I hadn't seen mention of git\source code management until I saw Claire's post, but I'm happy to crash course you on that (It's only going to take an hour). I've been researching it for my current company so it's all fresh.  It seems really dull, but all pros need it .

I assume you've discovered codepen as a great playground for messing about with css\html\javascript?

(* not literally of course, I'm to afraid of my own sexuality to admire men's balls!)

[Claire.]

Git in an hour?!

We've recently switched from TFS to git with work and most of my very experienced colleagues are still struggling!

[PaulF]

Git in an hour?!

We've recently switched from TFS to git with work and most of my very experienced colleagues are still struggling!

 Im no expert on either but theres a conceptual shift ( assuming tfs was the vss flavour). And shifting from one way to another is probably harder than from scratch ( and I think the two systems use the same name for different concepts)

Have you adapted ok? Really hoping I havent missed something big here.

[CHOPPER]

Funny this, me and the lads in the local boozer were talking about how Git would collaborate with others and how the robust security of line endings could be secured to create a seemless transfer.


Then we moved onto the per-repository option.


What a night that was.

[PaulF]

Thanks Claire.

Yeah the £8k is quite expensive but I thought if it gives me a jump start into a new career...in the grand scheme of things its an acceptable hit. Your point regarding self starters being better devs is hopeful though! I agree the volume of stuff out there is daunting...throw in some self doubt and my head is spinning!

I will take your advice on writing excellent markup - if I don't spend 8K on that bootcamp I'm pondering whether I should quit my job and commit to learning as I'm currently fitting in coding here and there - it isn't consitent. I don't have many bills and I'm living at home rent free at the moment - I could live off my savings for at least 6 months.

Appreciate your thoughts.

The javascript and programming might be more your thing , so once you can build a rudimentary page and style it with css, then you might want to try to start building interactivity with javascript and a library , jquery , angular etc. Firebase is nice for storing data when you are learning too. Mess about, see what you enjoy and what floats your boat. And Claire is right , basic css is easy but anything good requires real expertise.

Ps Claire , have you got 'the eye', or is your css more about achieving things technically?

[PaulF]

Funny this, me and the lads in the local boozer were talking about how Git would collaborate with others and how the robust security of line endings could be secured to create a seemless transfer.


Then we moved onto the per-repository option.


What a night that was.

You are such a square, when me and the lads go down the boozer we discuss the merits of hex for color codes and whether we should go big endian :p

[johnybarnes]

Cheers Paul.

I will have a dabble with codepen - haven't been able to focus much on coding last few days but hoping to get back on the horse. Still going through the HTML/CSS sections on codeacademy so I'm not that close to Javascript yet.

Anyone got a standing desk here? Thinking it will help with my posture and RSI issues that flare up occasionaly...tempted by:

https://www.furna.co.uk/products/furna-electric-standing-desk-sit-stand-desk?variant=27473611207

[Claire.]

The javascript and programming might be more your thing , so once you can build a rudimentary page and style it with css, then you might want to try to start building interactivity with javascript and a library , jquery , angular etc. Firebase is nice for storing data when you are learning too. Mess about, see what you enjoy and what floats your boat. And Claire is right , basic css is easy but anything good requires real expertise.

Ps Claire , have you got 'the eye', or is your css more about achieving things technically?

I do have an art degree and was a designer for a bit - moved to code because being a designer is a thankless and depressing career, not to mention fucking boring (and I worked somewhere with lots of variety!).

 Im no expert on either but theres a conceptual shift ( assuming tfs was the vss flavour). And shifting from one way to another is probably harder than from scratch ( and I think the two systems use the same name for different concepts)

Have you adapted ok? Really hoping I havent missed something big here.

I'd used git before tfs so I've been fine, lots of my colleagues hadn't used it before so it's making the adjustments, but they're programmers, they'll be fine.

Cheers Paul.

I will have a dabble with codepen - haven't been able to focus much on coding last few days but hoping to get back on the horse. Still going through the HTML/CSS sections on codeacademy so I'm not that close to Javascript yet.

Anyone got a standing desk here? Thinking it will help with my posture and RSI issues that flare up occasionaly...tempted by:

https://www.furna.co.uk/products/furna-electric-standing-desk-sit-stand-desk?variant=27473611207

I've had RSI before and it's usually come from using shite keyboards. I've been working from home for years now using a mac keyboard and mouse and haven't had a flare up at all. Cos it's practically flat your wrists can stay straight, using ones in offices that are bigger and more raised always used to cause me pain.

There is a thing I've seen and haven't had much time to really get into it myself but it might be a bit of fun for you: http://dailycssimages.com

Drawing stuff with CSS shapes - loads of pens with examples if you look on their twitter, can see how others are doing them.

[Claire.]

You might have heard of these but posting in case you haven't, they're really good: https://abookapart.com/products/

[Lone Wolf]

You might have heard of these but posting in case you haven't, they're really good: https://abookapart.com/products/

What level would you say they're aimed at Claire? I'm just about to start an apprenticeship with the civil service and know next to eff all really. They're training me and stuff but want to learn in my own time as well. So any starting recommendations gratefully received too.

[Claire.]

They're all really well written but for the tech based ones, I'd say they're not really beginners, some knowledge would be assumed. Have you ever read articles on alistapart? If you haven't, start there, you'll get a feel for what they produce.

This might be useful, too: https://frontendmasters.gitbooks.io/front-end-handbook-2017/content/

[Lone Wolf]

Will take a look, cheers.

[PaulF]

Anyone got a standing desk here? Thinking it will help with my posture and RSI issues that flare up occasionaly...tempted by:

https://www.furna.co.uk/products/furna-electric-standing-desk-sit-stand-desk?variant=27473611207

Is that RSI in your wrists\ hands? Not sure a standing desk will help. Seems to be that standing all day can cause other health problems!
If it is hands\wrists I can't recommend the 'natural' keyboards enough. They take about a week to get used to and at £35 they ain't cheap. But I can't use a normal keyboard now for about 10 mins without pain. Strangely I'm ok on a laptop for about an hour.

[wz4jc3]

I need some advice please.

I have published my primary maths website: myminimaths.co.uk and it has been increasing in popularity in recent months.

I have been using Serif's Webplus software to design and build the site as I sadly do not have the time to learn the skills required for HTML coding,etc.

As Webplus is showing some limitations to my future needs, can anybody recommend another web design product?

Any suggestions and help will be great fully received.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Claire.]

Google scholarships available to apply for on udacity: https://www.udacity.com/google-scholarships

Applications close on the 15th so if you fancy it, get your skates on!

[AnfieldIron]

A question for developers in here.

What would you advise a designer on how to deliver files?
Do you prefer Sketch files, is there anything you really hate when working with designers?

I know this is 10 months old - but have you seen this?

https://zeplin.io/

Very handy tool.

[SeanAxion]

Google scholarships available to apply for on udacity: https://www.udacity.com/google-scholarships

Applications close on the 15th so if you fancy it, get your skates on!

Cheers for posting that, I applied and forgot all about it. Just received an email saying I've been accepted for the mobile web specialist course. Some interesting modules in there like offline capable apps.

[Zlen]

I know this is 10 months old - but have you seen this?

https://zeplin.io/

Very handy tool.

Yep, got on Zeplin some time ago.
Sketch for design, Flinto to prototype animations and transitions and Zeplin for delivering to developers.

Anyone saw the InVision Studio app coming in 2018?
Looks like it'll do all of the above in a single package.

Very interesting time for on screen design - we've moved so rapidly from shoddy PSD mockups.

[Claire.]

Are you talking about why you're using parameters and arguments? or have I misunderstood?

(also, where are you learning? freecodecamp is good, also free, and ramps up gently)

[PaulF]

Don't worry I've worked it out now - I was being absolutely stupid. Will explain a bit better when I get to work

Please do, we are all curious now !

[Claire.]

You can skip about on FCC and just go to the bits that you want to do. Like most of its no use to me but I've looked at the algorithm, regex and react stuff.

Getting into front end is tougher now than it was when I started out, but you can still get into it, wages can be shite for juniors though.

When you say checking the output of XML, just looking up a value or something? is it JSON?

[SP]

It should be a simple job. Just throw it as something like https://prismjs.com

[Claire.]

Yeah, I’d look at something built for the job that’s knocking about, or even just an XSLT template would sort it.

No idea what you earn but junior dev in London the money varies loads, I always see remote stuff on stack overflow careers and codepen job board - have a look, it’ll give you an idea of what people are looking for.

I’ve been full time WFH for near 6 years now, don’t know how I’d cope in an office!

[Claire.]

Not dev but there are a few designer types knocking about - https://recruitment.liverpoolfc.com/vacancies/jobs/view/124 👋

[Sangria]

Question about applying a style from a stylesheet. I would like to define a number of styles in an external stylesheet with unique names, then call them in html. The idea is to have a base style with defined colours, and then define other details after that. Css tutorials on the web do something like this but with tags like p, h1 or a, restricting this to basic html functions. Can I do it with a tag like stig1?

[Sangria]

Are you familiar with classes and IDs within CSS?

Not within CSS, but I'm familiar with it in VB. If I have an example to work from, then I should understand the concept to make it work. What I would like is something like this:

CSS
stig1 {color
background color}
dump1 {font style
font size}
stig2
dump2, etc.

HTML
<stig1> // define colour
<dump1> // define font

[CraigDS]

You'd either name (class/ID) the font element within the HTML and then define its styling in the CSS. Or name (class/ID) the div the font element is in within the HTML and then define its styling in the CSS.

[Sangria]

You'd either name (class/ID) the font element within the HTML and then define its styling in the CSS. Or name (class/ID) the div the font element is in within the HTML and then define its styling in the CSS.

Thanks. Class does the trick.

[Claire.]

What you've suggested will work with custom elements, but for Edge or IE (or probably both!) you'll need to set their display property or they won't play ball.